Taking a vacation requires a lot of planning. Between booking flights and hotels or deciding which roads to take and sights to see, there are a lot of moving parts to a great vacation plan. But as you coordinate your travel plans, don’t forget to think about the home you’re leaving behind. Here are 20 steps to take before leaving for your vacation.
1. Notify your credit card company
If you’re going to make credit card purchases during your trip, you may want to notify your credit card company. Unusual purchases made in novel locations are sometimes interpreted as fraudulent charges and your credit card company may suspend your card to be on the safe side. Avoid the in-store embarrassment of having your card declined by calling your credit card company ahead of time.
2. Hold your mail
You can contact your post office to order a mail hold or you can ask your neighbor to pick up your mail for you.
3. Maintain your lawn
If you will be gone for more than two weeks, be sure to have someone maintain your lawn. It can be difficult to mow your lawn if it has been left to grow for more than two weeks. Plus, the neighbors might complain.
4. Move outdoor furniture indoors
Move high-value outdoor items that could be stolen to your basement, garage or shed. This includes grills and lawn decorations.
5. Park your car in the garage
This can help prevent weather damage and burglary.
6. Clean out the fridge
Remove anything from your refrigerator that could spoil while you’re away and empty the garbage and recycling.
7. Wash your dishes
Specks of food left on dirty dishes can evolve into a biology experiment fast. Don’t come home to a kitchen that smells like a dumpster. Wash all your dirty dishes before you leave for vacation. Bonus tip: If you have time to empty the dishwasher, future-you will thank you!
8. Clean your garbage disposal
Run your garbage disposal with baking soda and vinegar or a sliced lemon to clean out any foul smells that could worsen while you’re away.
9. Buy frozen breakfast food
If you’ve cleaned out your fridge, there may be nothing edible for you to eat when you return from vacation. Restock your freezer with your favorite frozen breakfast foods so that you don’t have to rush to the store the day you get back. Frozen wraps or waffles are great for breakfast the first morning back after vacation.
10. Choose a fresh scent
Buy some plug-ins or potpourri so you have a new, fresh scent to come home to. But if you will be gone for more than three weeks, don’t use plug-ins. They could dry up and become a fire hazard if left plugged in.
11. Put baking soda in your toilets
Stagnant water can give off a strange smell, but if you put baking soda in your toilet bowl, you won’t come home to a musty bathroom.
12. Wash your laundry
Those dirty socks are going to smell a million times worse after you return home. Don’t come home to a bedroom that smells like a gym locker. Wash, dry and put away your laundry.
13. Make your bed
You’ll probably return from your vacation in the afternoon or evening. Getting into your own bed made with clean sheets can be one of the best feelings after a long day of travel.
14. Turn off your alarm clock
You don’t want your alarm clock buzzing for hours while you’re away, especially if you have pets or neighbors who might hear it.
15. Set a light timer
You can buy a simple timer at most home improvements stores. Plug the timer into an electric socket and then plug a lamp into the timer. It will turn on whenever you set it to. This can help thwart burglars as it gives the appearance that you’re home.
16. Adjust your thermostat
Raise the temperature a few degrees higher in the summer or lower in the winter to save on gas and electricity. Just make sure the temperature isn’t too extreme for household pets or plants.
17. Lower your water heater temperature
Newer water heaters have a vacation mode that drops the temperature while you’re away. Even if yours doesn’t have this, you can still turn the temperature down to save energy.
18. Turn off your water valves
Your house can flood if there is a malfunction with your dishwasher, refrigerator, washing machine, or plumbing. If you’re gone for a few days, such a flood can be catastrophic. Turning off your water valves or installing a smart water valve with automated valve and moisture sensor, can help reduce the likelihood of a house flood if there’s a malfunction with an appliance or utility.
19. Secure your spare key
Give your spare key to a relative, friend or neighbor—even if they aren’t going to be house-sitting. If you return home and don’t have your key, you can get the spare from them. Don’t leave one under a doormat or in a plastic rock. That’s where thieves will check first.
20. Shut your windows
Lower the storm windows and close and latch all basement and first floor windows. Burglars can cut out the screen or break the storm window to slide an unlatched window open, so double-check that everything is locked.
The Last Step: Enjoy Your Vacation With Peace of Mind
Vacations should be fun and relaxing. The last thing you want is to be miles from home when you realize you left your blinds open and forgot to hold your mail delivery. Nor do you want to come home to a smelly house and a fridge full of rotten food after a long day of traveling. By following these steps, you can remain relaxed on your vacation and settle back in with ease when you return.
I unplug Bunn coffee pot & air fryer (everyday unplug for air fryer!), and hide my spare keys hanging on the wall rack, also shut off outdoor spigots that hoses are attached to.
If you are going to use your debit card you should also alert the bank if it’s a different bank than your credit card. I had a purchase denied when out of town and attempted to use my debit card.
Thank you for sharing this advice, June!
Thanks for the information.
You’re welcome!
Notify local police department
Notify your next door neighbor even if you don’t give him (or her) your spare key
Payoff your outstanding bills, rent, mortgage payment etc due during the vacation period
Tell a -Trusted- neighbor you are leaving so they will be alerted to call You or the police, if they see anyone, you have not informed them of, entering/leaving your home at night or at an odd time.
1) Trip your garage door emergency pulls so no one can trip these with a hanger or other device slipped through the top of the garage door to gain access to garage.
2) Set sprinkler times and days to coordinate with weather predictions.
3) Check security system is on, check all doors are locked. Let your security system vendor know you will be out of town. Be sure they have correct phone numbers to call if needed.
4) If cats left in house, check all inside doors closed to prevent cat being locked in a room.
5) Take a spare car key for wife or family member on a motor trip.
6) Even if hold newspapers, have a neighbor pick up newspapers inappropriately delivered.
7) Have a neighbor pick up any deliveries you may have forgotten about.
8) If traveling by air, remove car keys from obvious places if cars are parked in garage.
9) Use water bulbs for outside plants and grasses in planters if gone for more than a few days.
10) If garage lights not on a timer, put in sensing bulbs that turn on at dusk, off at dawn.
11) Have someone shovel snow on sidewalks if live in winter weather.
12) Let appropriate neighbors know you will be gone for so many days
13) Lock gates to back yard.
Great reminder advice!
Turn ALL water spout knobs off, including toilet bowl.
Place dry sponges over open drains to prevent creepy crawlers from entering through pipes.
Create a check list.
Great tips, Pat. Thanks for sharing!
Ask a neighbor to park in your driveway. If car comes & goes they’ll think you are home……….We travel in RV so take most of our refrig & freezer items. They are more efficient with stuff in them so put loaves of cheap bread in them or as I do – I put pillows in.
Make sure my plants are put in a spot where the automatic sprinkler will water them.
Besides mail, some of us actually still have a newspaper delivered, even if it’s just the Sunday paper. Piled up newspapers are a dead giveaway to no one being home.
Thanks, it’s a great reminders!!!
If you will be traveling internationally with your cell phone, call your carrier to see what plans they have that can save you money and sign up for one. A friend of mine didn’t do this and got a huge bill after she came home as the carrier charged her roaming fees for all calls (even from telemarketers), texts, and data usage (think GPS usage) that occurred during her trip. My carrier charges a flat rate of $10 per day for the first 10 days (then it’s free for any additional days) for ALL calls, texts, and data usage. No limits.
Thank you for explaining that you can put baking soda in your toilet to avoid a musty bathroom when coming home. My family is planning to go on a waterfront cabin vacation since it’s been years since we last traveled. I’ll make sure to follow the tips you provided here to ensure that the house is safe when we come home.
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The above advice to shut off the gas to a gas water heater applies similarly to electric and oil-fired water heaters. Water expands when heated, and contracts when cooled. This is happening constantly in your water heater tank, which pushes and pulls a small amount of water from the tank into and out of your plumbing system. Since your plumbing system has a fixed volume, that change in water volume is accommodated by your public or private water supplier’s system. However, if you have shut off your main water valve, this exchange with your water supplier cannot occur. The result will be a pressure buildup within your water heater tank and your plumbing system. That pressure is partially relieved by the water heater temperature and pressure relief valve, which will dribble a small amount of hot water onto your floor as a result. The remaining excess pressure will stress your water pipes, water heater tank, toilet fill valves, and faucets, possibly eventually leading to a leak.
If you want to close your main valve while you are on vacation, you can eliminate the hot water expansion/overpressure problem by: (1) turning the water heater thermostat to off, or (2) slightly opening a bath tub faucet in an upper floor to keep the plumbing system depressurized, or (3) having a plumber install an expansion tank in your plumbing system.
If you have your own well, your pressure tank acts as an expansion tank as long as the main supply valve is kept open.
If traveling means I’m going to miss my garbage pickup, I put items that will get really smelly (banana peels, meat trays, bones, etc.) in plastic grocery bags and store them in my freezer. A full freezer uses less energy and I just throw them in the garbage when I get back.
GREAT TIPS!!! Will be using them soon!! Thank you!!!!!
If there is a storm with lightning while I am away, it could hit the TV if it’s plugged in. Before I leave for vacation, I unplug the cable TV and coffeemaker. I also transfer calls from my home phone to my cell phone.
Thanks for sharing. Good tips!
Also turn off any ceiling fans that you have on. I also have Computer and desk equipment, TV components on power strips, they all get shut down when we leave.
Harold, Retired Firefighter
All great tips. Be sure to give your itinerary to someone you trust in case of emergencies.
Good tip! Thanks for sharing.
I have seen the floods from burst pipes both in winter and gushing out the door in summer. I shut off the power to my well pump. No worries!
It is a good idea to unplug your non-essential electrical items like the toaster, coffee maker, computer, TV and lamps while you are gone to reduce electric usage and potential electrical fire or damage to appliance due to power outage surges while you are away.
Excellent tips. Quite a few that I never considered.
Don’t forget to hold your paper delivery. (Yes, there are still many folks who get a daily paper and don’t rely on the internet for news.) I had a potentially bad incident where they forgot to hold my papers until I returned and delivered all10 days worth to my street sleeve one day which was a glaring invitation to rob my place. Fortunately it didn’t happen…I was lucky…
Do NOT shut water main off if you do not shut off gas supply to hot water heater. Could cause pressure in tank if away for extended period.
Never thought of the water valves or lowering water heater. Thanks for those tips!
Very good advice thank you
Very good tips very help full
Great tip some I haven’t thought of Thank you!!